Chapter 6 The Sound patterns of language Every individual has a physically different vocal track.

Consequently, in purely physical terms, every individual will pronounce sounds differently. They are, then, potentially thousands of physically different ways of saying the simple word me. Me as phonetic form [mi], and not [ni], or [si], or [ma], or [mo] or something else entirely? The answer to that question is provided to a large extent by study of phonology. Opaque change to [s] when suffix ity is added to form of the word opacity. The goal of phonology is to study the propertiy of sound system which speaker must learn of internalize in order to use their language for purpose of communication. Phonology Phonology is essentially the description of the system and pattern s of speech sounds in a language. It is, in effect, based on a theory what every speaker of language unconsciously knows about the sound patterns of that language. Phonology is concerned with abstract or mental aspect of the sound in language rather than with actual physical articulation of speech sounds. Phonetic Accoustic phonetic, the study of the physical properties of the sounds that are produced. Sapir (1925: 16-18) : two language can have the same inventory of phonetic segments but have very different phonologies. Example : salz (zalt) salt in german word and salts (s lts) in English. Phonemes Each one o these meaning distinguishing sound in a language is described as phoneme. Phoneme /t/ is described as a sound type, of which all the different spoken versions of [t] are tokens. Slash marks are conventionally used to indicate phoneme. An essential property of a phoneme is that it function contrasitively. We substitute one

sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then the two sound represent different phonemes. Minimal pairs and sets When two words such as pet and bat are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurung in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair. Example: fan-van, bet-bat, site-side. When a group of words are differentiated, each one from others by changing one phoneme (always in the same position) then we have minimal set . Example: feat, fit, fat, fate [feit], fought, foot (vowel) big, pig, rig, fig, dig, wig (consonants) Phones and allophones While phoneme is an abstract unit of sound, there can be different phonetic realization of any phoneme. These phonetic units are technically described as phones. [I] and [i], used in English to realize a single phoneme. These phonetic variants are technically known as allophones. The crucial distinction between phonemes and allophones is that substituting one phoneme for another will result in a word with different meaning (as well as a different pronunciation) in French, however, the pronunciation [m] is used for one word mets , meaning dish. And [m] for different word main ,meaning hand. And [so] for seau meaning pail contrast with [s] for son , meaning sound. Clearly, in these cases, the distinction is phonemic. Assimilation When two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or copied by other, this prosses is known as assimilation. Example, you may pronounce and as [nd] in isolation, but in the causal use of the phrase you and me, you almost certainly say [en], as in [yuenmi].

Elision

The [d] sound of and has simply disappeared. This omission sound segment which would be present in the deliberate pronunciation of a word in isolation is technically described as elision. Redudancy and Distinctiveness English has 2 kind of voiceless stop phonetically aspirated [ p h, t h, k h } and unaspirated [p,t,k] Aspirated stop are found at beginning of words. Example : pin is pronounced [p h in] On other hand, unaspirated stops are found after word initial s. example : spin is pronounced [spin], not [sp h in]

Bibliography Hyman,Larry M.Phonology:Theory and Analysis.Halt,Rinehart and Winston. Yule,George.Study of Language.1990.New York:University of Cambridge Press.